Tank Girl + Schindler’s List

Posted on July 2, 2009 by Alice Thirteen
Tank Girl + Schindler’s List

This is really happening. Decaying studio. Gorillaz, comics, Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett. The return of sand beetle. Lori Petty. The return of Cole Porter. Courtney Love and the music of Tank Girl. Exploitation. CHASING THE SEMI – Stealing from Road Warrior. Kangaroo Men. Shitty filmmaking as a purist alternative to homage. The one brilliant thing Tank Girl does, and is it intentional? Blade Runner Syndrome. And all that could have been. How The Aristocrats was made, and what that has to do with Schindler’s List. Alice finally asks Michael why he has so many World War II films. First person shooters. Immersive actors. A bit on black and white. Steven Spielberg. Why films with subtitles are overrated. Too proud? Expecting people to know information outside of what you present. Liam Neeson as a powerhouse. Schindler’s character arc. The omission of Hitler. The scope of your story. Time vault. Nazis as flawed human beings vs mythological monsters. How nazis were convinced to participate in genocide. Continue reading →

Battle Royale + The Hills Have Eyes

Posted on June 25, 2009 by Alice Thirteen
Battle Royale + The Hills Have Eyes

Grinding brutality. Accidental homework. Things that don’t make any goddamn sense: The 1/3 rule. The players. The game. The weapons. Kids reading maps. The unexpected flaws of a modern exploitation film. Daring to pick at the plot. Killing your girlfriend. Tabboos: Slaughtering children. A bit on Battle Royale 2. Kids have sex. Realistic children in film. Fact check on the bomb tests. Aversion to mutants. An appeal for mutants. The 70s Rottentomatoes factor. One-Uping the original. Pushing past tasteful. The Last Mimzy incident. Treading new ground. Continue reading →

Intacto + The Shape of Things

Posted on June 18, 2009 by Alice Thirteen
Intacto + The Shape of Things

Manipulation. Dubbing and subtitles. Alice and Max von Sydow. The players. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. 28 Weeks Later. The Prodigy. Drawing your audience in. Danger ahead. Alfred Hitchcock Presents “Man from the South”. The supernatural element. Maybe Intacto thinks luck is a joke and this entire film is actually about realistic games of probability. The invisible B Story. Neil LaBute. The Shape of Things as an adaptation from theater. Obnoxious distracting uncomfortability. Not accepting a given premise. Four person love triangles. How to fix The Shape of Things. Plays are not movies. Continue reading →

Killapalooza 5: Child’s Play

Posted on June 11, 2009 by Alice Thirteen
Killapalooza 5: Child’s Play

Child’s Play films 1-5. Chucky. Year end slasher review. Films in Chicago. The Lakeshore Strangler. Charles Lee Ray. Ambiguity. Using voodoo for evil. If they only knew! Becoming human. Once the monster’s out of the dark. A great turn in plot. Where the third film came from. Writing backwards from the punch-line. Retcon. Reboot without restarting. Alice’s teenage music soundtrack. Embracing and mocking a subculture at the same time. The difficulty of making references. Finally stopping the slasher (in the most obvious way). The abrupt endings. The new slasher. Hollywood satire: Good or Bad? 12 Step is still a fucking joke. Blaxploitation. Jennifer Tilley. Counter-culture. The most human slasher. Continue reading →

Murderball + Monster Man

Posted on June 4, 2009 by Alice Thirteen
Murderball + Monster Man

INTERVIEW w/ Dana Adam Shapiro. CRUSH Double Feature SMASH. Hidden secondary theme? Fast action against intentionally slow drama. Making an audience excited about something foreign to them. The forbidden questions. Grounding your audience. Tugging at the heart strings – the easy way and the hard way. How Murderball was made. Journalism. Shooting low budget. Technical specifics on cameras, mics, lights, etc. Planning vs luck. Managing an unexpected ending. Highway survival horror. Crafting a set. The truck. The man behind the truck. The official “show the monster” movement. Death curse. When content outside a movie makes you feel a different way about it. Hamster style. Campy Dialogue. Exploitation. Continue reading →

Deliver Us From Evil + Apt Pupil

Posted on May 28, 2009 by Alice Thirteen
Deliver Us From Evil + Apt Pupil

Child Manipulation. Amy Berg. Honest ways to make your audience uncomfortable. Good people doing bad things. Bad people. Sam Harris’ Functional Neuroimaging of Belief, Disbelief and Uncertainty. The cause of pedophilia. Why people do bad things. Pull of the weasel. Masturbation and raping children: turns out they’re not the same thing. Forgiveness. Group think. Why this is still a problem. Terminology. Bryan Singer. Editing music to score. Evil for the sake of Evil. Blackmail. Dynamic characters without moral redemption. Where does your story end when there’s so much more to tell? Alternate ending. Continue reading →

Rififi + The Triplets of Belleville

Posted on May 21, 2009 by Alice Thirteen
Rififi + The Triplets of Belleville

French ragtag double feature. Du Rififi Chez les Hommes. Tesla. Alice tries to pronounce things in french. Jules Dassin and communism. Films better than the book. The titular . . . song? The heist concept. Michael’s heist film. After the heist! Fencing. Heist team stereotypes. They’ve found it – why America doesn’t get along with France. Les triplettes de Belleville as a secret propaganda film. Different types of french films. How to approach a film you don’t understand. Reading too much into art. The gamble of interpretation. Clues. Continue reading →

Dog Soldiers + Hostage

Posted on May 14, 2009 by Alice Thirteen
Dog Soldiers + Hostage

Neil Marshall. Homages. References. SNATCH SYNDROME. Thirty second summary. Reaction Dog. The numbers game. Werewolf skepticism. Dog Soldiers takes on werewolves. Hamster style. SWORD WOLF. Why do werewolf films suck? Style vs substance. Credits controversy. The arthouse look. Intensity. Viable alternatives to raw intensity. The loose cannon bad guy. Who is the real hostage? When a scene is acceptable vs ridiculous. Continue reading →

The Libertine + The Root of All Evil?

Posted on May 7, 2009 by Alice Thirteen
The Libertine + The Root of All Evil?

The enemy: sex or god? The trouble with period pieces. Dialogue from an age long ago. The typical components of a period piece. What separates The Libertine from the rest. Long tracking shots. Shifting focus. Arthouse fighting immersion. Acting games. Bookends revisited. Why no one saw this. Sex making people uncomfortable. The title “The Root of All Evil?” The Dawkins visual style. The one camera interview. The Dawkins approach to atheism. Confrontational, hateful, or just fed up? Why religion is not just oppressive but dangerous. Not knowing. Giving up on the quest for answers. Sex Ed. Ted Haggard. Missing footage. Using the Bible as a source of morality. Continue reading →

Penn and Teller Get Killed + Pee Wee’s Big Adventure

Posted on April 30, 2009 by Alice Thirteen
Penn and Teller Get Killed + Pee Wee’s Big Adventure

Unlikely 80s films / Men in grey suits. David Lynch! Arthur Penn? Calling out nonsense that happens all the time in movies. Penn Jillette’s radio show. High concept dark comedy. The dual role. Buying the trick. VHS quality causes mass confusion. Asking to be killed. Bible salesman. James Randi. Killing your partner every night. Dowsing as a metaphor. Psychic surgery. Desert Bus! Bullshit! Why is this not on DVD? Who is Pee Wee? Tim Burton. Directors who do one-offs. The styles and genres. Theatrical irony. Psychics and hot readings. Films within films. Continue reading →